the dead walk

"... you find the alley entrance in front of you choked off by walkers ... you've backed down the alley, only to find yourself pressed against a brick wall ... luckily for you, there is an old fire escape ladder just to your right. Checking your pistol, you realize you only have eight shots remaining ... and many more walkers wanting to dine on your flesh ... what is your next step?"
if you have stumbled upon my blog from elsewhere, you may be feeling a bit confused ... well, fear not blog adventurer (or maybe you should fear and head to the "next blog" link above), this is merely the home for a new homebrew 3.5ish ed RPG that I am running, set in Robert Kirkman's bleak future of "the Walking Dead". While I am not crazy enough to follow the graphic novel, or put any of my player characters (PC's) into the roles see in the comic or show, we will be playing under the same greater storyline, only in a significantly different location ... my current home, Des Moines IA. I intend to borrow more from the graphic novel than the TV series, given the wealth of information on those pages exceeds what is available on the show.
I plan to use this blog for a number of different purposes - thoughts, GM notes, recaps, ideas - so feel free to drop in often. We have 3 PCs (and 1 NPC) created, with 2 fleshed out, and 1 more to go. It will be an interesting ride, as the majority of our happy little group will be gaming first-timers. This leaves me with a bevy of untested waters and ideas that may or may not work with this group. In the coming week or two, I will introduce you to them each and give you a little backstory before we get to game time. I should be able to fill in time with some of the ideas and basic concepts that we will be using ... starting with the setting.

The Setting
The comic and show are both set in modern day Georgia, with Atlanta being a major backdrop in the TV series season 1. Since I am keeping with that "real world" theme and feeling, but not wanting to risk delving into an unfamiliar city, I chose to set our game here in Des Moines. All of my PC's either live in Des Moines or are familiar with it, so I am using this to drive home the severity of damage that would be done to familiar sites. Severity to the extent that one of my PC's (who is also my fiancee) and I have had multiple "what if" conversations about the city after a zombie apocalypse. This concept was brought up to me by a fellow GM on a game that he previously ran set in Des Moines. The familiarity adds a little extra oompf for the PC's. I am hoping to capture that ... and then tear it down.
Setting the game in DSM also means that I am "safe" from coming into conflict with any of Kirkman's characters and potentially portraying them incorrectly/incompletely. This also gives me the liberty to create my own characters with their own personalities, strengths, and flaws ... and do I ever have some ideas! Playing in an area my PC's are familiar with and a setting they all understand, gives me the opportunity to craft a better game for them and a better experience ... one that will keep them coming back session after session.